Can city administrations benefit from the entrepreneurial spirit of startups, and create better urban solutions with their help? In this paper, we critically assess the interplay between startups and city administrations for city-driven innovative public procurement or “challenge-based procurement” policy, taking Amsterdam’s Startup in Residence (SiR) programme as a case study. We describe and analyse this programme from two perspectives: i) the economic development perspective, i.e. does it promote startups and does it bring them new business opportunities, and ii) a governance perspective, i.e. does it bridge the gap between startups and the city bureaucracy; does it lead to a more innovative culture within city government.
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from the article: Abstract Based on a review of recent literature, this paper addresses the question of how urban planners can steer urban environmental quality, given the fact that it is multidimensional in character, is assessed largely in subjective terms and varies across time. The paper explores three questions that are at the core of planning and designing cities: ‘quality of what?’, ‘quality for whom?’ and ‘quality at what time?’ and illustrates the dilemmas that urban planners face in answering these questions. The three questions provide a novel framework that offers urban planners perspectives for action in finding their way out of the dilemmas identified. Rather than further detailing the exact nature of urban quality, these perspectives call for an approach to urban planning that is integrated, participative and adaptive. ; ; sustainable urban development; trade-offs; quality dimensions
Worldwide, coral reefs are rapidly declining due to increased sea water temperatures and other environmental stresses (Figure 1). To counter the extinction of major coral reef building species on the island of Bonaire, the non-profit organization Reef Renewal Foundation Bonaire is restoring degraded reef sites using corals that are grown in local nurseries. In these nurseries, corals are propagated on artificial trees using fragmentation. After 6-8 months of growth in the nursery, the corals are transplanted to degraded reef sites around the island. Over the years more than 21.000 corals have been outplanted to reef restoration sites in this way. These corals show high survivorship under natural reef conditions but remain under threat by environmental disturbances, such as increased water temperatures, diseases, and competition with macroalgae. A promising intervention to increase reef persistence and resilience is to manipulate the coral-associated microbiome. At present, the composition of the microbiome in nursery-reared and outplanted corals on Bonaire is unknown. The aim of the current project is to identify and isolate naturally occurring beneficial bacteria that may stimulate the resilience of these corals. Our key objectives are: 1) to assess the presence of functionally beneficial bacteria in corals in nursery and restoration sites on Bonaire using metagenomic screening. 2) to design culture strategies to isolate these functionally beneficial bacteria. In the future, a selection of these beneficial bacteria can be applied to the corals to increase their resilience against environmental disturbances.
Many Caribbean reefs have shifted from coral-dominated to algal-dominated ecosystems. The high algae cover reduces coral recruitment, making the reef unable to recover from other disturbances and resulting in flatter reefs with lower biodiversity. One of the reasons for the proliferation of algae is a mass die-off of the herbivorous sea urchin Diadema antillarum in the early 1980s. Natural recovery of Diadema populations is slow to non-existent, making active restoration of this important grazer a top priority in Caribbean coral reef management, especially since Diadema densities were reduced by another mass mortality event in 2022. The marine park organizations of Saba and St. Eustatius want to restore Diadema populations by restocking cultured individuals. However, important knowledge gaps need to be addressed before large numbers of Diadema can be restocked on the reef. Current culture methods can only produce a limited number of competent larvae. In addition, only 8% of the settlers survive and after restocking, survival on the reef is low as well. In the RAAK PRO Diadema II project, the bottlenecks in Diadema culture will be addressed by comparing larval survival across multiple culture methods and investigating the relation between larval size and post-settlement survival. Growing-out juveniles at sea is likely to help prepare them for life in the wild, while restocking at an optimal size might also increase survival. Finally, a thorough restocking site selection based on high shelter availability and settlement rates will increase the long-term Diadema densities. The acquired knowledge and developed practices will be verified in a larger scale restocking experiment involving at least 5000 Diadema urchins. By restoring Diadema populations through restocking, macroalgae will be more intensively removed and corals will have a chance to settle and to survive, increasing the ability of the reef to cope with other stressors.
Climate change is increasing the challenges for water management worldwide. Extreme weather conditions, such as droughts and heavy rainfall, are increasingly limiting the availability of water, especially for agriculture. Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) offer potential solutions. They help to collect and infiltrate rainwater and thus play an important role in climate adaptation.Green infrastructure, such as rain gardens (sunken plant beds) and wadis (sunken grass fields for temporary storage of rainwater), help to restore the urban water balance. They reduce rainwater runoff, stabilize groundwater levels and solve problems with soil moisture and temperature. Despite these advantages, there is still much ignorance in practice about the possibilities of NBS. To remedy this, freely accessible knowledge modules are being developed that can help governments and future employees to better understand the application of these solutions. This research, called GINA (Green Infrastructure in Urban Areas), aims to create more sustainable and climate-resilient cities by developing and sharing knowledge about NBS, and supports local governments and students in effectively deploying these green infrastructures.
